No-try ruling leaves departing Hill with that empty feeling

AN "empty" Scott Hill questioned a disallowed try to Melbourne
team-ate Matt King that would have levelled the scores late in last
night's grand final - but the biggest blow to the Storm was a
Justin Hodges high shot that eventually forced skipper Cameron
Smith from the field.

While not as vital to the result as the infamous late hit by
Canterbury pair Terry Lamb and Andrew Farrar that put Balmain's
star English five-eighth Ellery Hanley out of the 1988 premiership
decider, the high tackle on Smith left Melbourne struggling for
direction as they tried to fight their way back into the game.

Initially dazed by the 49th-minute tackle, Smith remained on the
field for a further 23 minutes but a rib injury sustained at the
same time left him unable to kick. "I didn't see him coming," Smith
said. "He just got me across the face. They're pretty strict on
high tackles. For the last 20 minutes I just couldn't move."

The incident occurred after Smith found himself with the ball
near the Broncos' tryline following a poor pass from Matt Geyer
that forced Ben Cross to kick the ball on the last tackle.

King outjumped Brent Tate and tapped the ball back for Smith,
who was felled in a desperate tackle by Hodges that sparked a minor
melee.

Hodges was penalised for the 49th minute high shot and referee
Paul Simpkins warned Brisbane interchange forward Corey Parker he
had gone close to earning a stint in the sin-bin for running in to
become the third player involved.

Hill put King over for Melbourne's second try to level the
scores at 8-8 but Smith was unable to take the conversion because
of the leg injury that eventually forced him from the field and
Geyer missed.

It was the beginning of the end for the Storm as all the 50-50
calls suddenly seemed to go against them.

A Billy Slater high shot on Shaun Berrigan enabled Darren
Lockyer to put the Broncos ahead 10-8 midway through the second
half but replays suggested the Brisbane hooker had used interchange
forward Ben Hannant as a shepherd and Melbourne should have
received a penalty.

With a Brent Tate try increasing the Broncos lead to 14-8, King
was disallowed a 66th-minute touchdown at the other end after video
referees Bill Harrigan and Chris Ward ruled that the ball had first
bounced forward off Ryan Hoffman's arm into his head from a Cooper
Cronk kick.

But Hill, who was playing his 200th and final NRL game before
heading off to London Harlequins, disagreed.

"It's a bit hard. I didn't see it coming off any one of our
blokes, if anything it came off Ryan's head," Hill said.

"It's not going to change anything now, I thought it was the
wrong call but it's over now. I just feel empty."

Hoffman said: "I've got no idea whether I touched it. I just
jumped up for the ball and it bounced off something. It doesn't
matter anymore."

The ruling, however, compounded the Melbourne players'
frustration and when Simpkins failed to detect Hodges knocking down
a wild pass from Slater two minutes later and ruled it had gone
into touch off Geyer, they demanded he look at the video, shouting:
"Use it, use it".

Smith left the field shortly afterwards but returned to
congratulate the Broncos at the post-match presentation.

He said: "We played nowhere near our potential against those
blokes. We went away from our game plan and that got us into some
strife."